Storage problems with State papers

An article in today’s Irish Times by Fiona Gartland outlines the continuing lack of adequate storage space in the National Archives of Ireland and the government’s ‘sure it will be all right attitude’ towards this.

‘MANY STATE papers due to become available to the public yesterday will not be accessible because of storage problems at the National Archives.

The building, on Bishop Street in Dublin, is critically short of storage space for its records and over 100,000 boxes of important documents are stored in a warehouse with no environmental control’

2 Responses

Madam, – The crisis facing the National Archives is highlighted by Fiona Gartland (Home News, January 5th).

Frances McGee, archives keeper, is quoted as stating there is a chronic lack of space and the warehouse to the rear of the current premises is inadequate for long-term storage of documents.

In 1922, during the Civil War, almost the entire contents of the Public Record Office of Ireland were incinerated in the siege of the Four Courts. This shameful act of cultural vandalism was perpetrated by the founders of this State. Wittingly or unwittingly, they robbed us of countless unique and irreplaceable records of our heritage.

We are supposed to have learned our lesson after 1922, but it seems that we have not. In lieu of a civil war, the Government proffers “recession” as an excuse for endangering what has been accumulated in the wake of 1922.

The National Archives of Ireland has been starved of resources for decades. Evidently the Government has a low opinion of our heritage. Its current plan for the archive is to merge it into the National Library. Far from promoting the interests of the National Archives, such a move would reduce it to a component of the National Library’s manuscript department where it would compete with other departments for even more limited funding.

The National Library’s dismantling of the Genealogical Office (a “branch” of the Library, according to the legislation) should give some indication of the fate of the National Archives in that scenario.

The very idea that the National Archives could be absorbed into, or even merge equally with, the National Library is an affront to what is left of our heritage. Instead of this philistine approach, what the National Archives needs is adequate funding, staffing and premises, the re-appointment of the National Archives Advisory Council and, of course, continued autonomy. Recessions come and go; the stain of cultural vandalism is indelible. – Yours, etc,